Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), this was the first recreational park in the Richmond-Petersburg-Hopewell area. The National Park Service donated the facility to Virginia State Parks in 1946, making it the largest Virginia state parks with more than 7,600 acres and two small lakes. The area was renamed Pocahontas State Park and Pocahontas State Forest and was operated under a cooperative management arrangement with the Department of Forestry. In 1989 a new master plan, funded jointly by the Commonwealth of Virginia and Chesterfield County, called for expansion of park facilities to accommodate the large urban population surrounding the park. Today the entire area is operated as Pocahontas State Park. The park is undergoing massive renovation to expand and upgrade its facilities.

The park is named after Pocahontas, the famed daughter of Chief Powhatan, who was ruler over the tribes in the Powhatan Confederacy of the Algonquin Nation. Legend has it that Pocahontas saved Captain John Smith's life when he has held captive by the Powhatan Confederacy. She later married John Rolfe and traveled with him to London where she died of smallpox.